romney ponts out 47% of the people won't take responsibility. he is take -- talking about my mother and father and my neighbors in scranton, claymont. he is talking about the people that built this country. all they are looking for, market aall they are looking for is an even shot. when you give them the shot, they have done it. they have done it. whenever you level the playing field, they have been able to move. they want peace of mind. the president and i are not going to rest until that playing field is leveled. they in fact have a clear shot, and they have peace of mind, until they can turn to their kid and say with a degree of confidence, honey, it is going to be okay. it is going to be okay. that's what this is all about. >> martha: congressman ryan. >> i want to thank you, as well. danville, kentucky, centre college. i want to thank you, joe. it's been an honor to engage in this critical debate. we face a very big choice.

what kind of country are we going to be? what kind of country are we going to give our kids? president obama, he had his chance. he made his choices. his economic agenda, more spending, more borrowing, higher taxes, a government takeover of health care... it is not working. it's failed to create the jobs we need. 23 million americans are struggling for work today. 15% of americans are in poverty. this is not what a real recovery looks like. you deserve better. mitt romney and i want to earn your support. we are offering real reforms for a real recovery for every american. mitt romney -- his experience, his ideas, his solutions, is uniquely imafled to get this -- qualified to get this job done. at a time when we have a job crisis in america, wouldn't it

be nice to have a job creator in the white house? the choice is clear -- a stagnant economy that promotes more government dependency. mitt romney and i will not duck the tough issues. we will not blame others for the next four years. we will take responsibility. and we will not try to replace our founding principles. we will re-apply our founding principles. the choice is clear. the choice rests with you. and we ask you for your vote. thank you. >> martha: thank you both again. thank you very much. this concludes the vice-presidential debate. please tune in next tuesday for the second presidential debate at hoffstra yrt in new york. i'm martha raddatz of abc news. i do hope all of you go to the polls. have a good evening. [cheers and applause]

>> the one and only vice-presidential debate, wrapping up. you just heard that vice-president biden, at the end there, complaining about time. saying he wanted to be -- have more time at the end? we have the breakdown of time, in case you are interested at home. this is a rough estimate. but biden had roughly 41 minutes 50 seconds of talk time. and congressman ryan 40 empties and 5 seconds. this was a much different moderating style by abc's martha raddatz, than jim lehrer in the

first presidential debate. she interrupted much more and asked many more pointed questions. republicans are already all over twitter, criticizing this moderating style because they feel she interrupted congressman ryan much more before he finished his thoughts and perhaps his charges. this debate was largely a cheerful affair on the vice-president's side of the table, it appeared. for much of the debate, he smiled and laughed in reaction to congressman ryan's answer, perhaps in an effort to diminish ryan on taj. he referred to ryan as "my friend," a holdout from his senate debating days. that smiling and laughing, megyn, it's interesting to see how that will play at home, whether it will come off as smug, or people will not like that, or it will come off as the vice-president hoped it would, relaxed and lay playing down congressman ryan.

he clearly had a lot of comfort in the foreign policy area, but he did have a bumpy road at the beginning with the libya question and through the intelligence community -- threw the intelligence community under the bus, saying they didn't have any answers in the early days of the libya a. attack. and congressman ryan felt comfortable looked like he was comfortable in the entitlement reform area, most comfortable and he had a good line when pushing back at vice-president biden attack on the 47% video, governor romney 47% video tape, saying, vice-president biden, you can understand that sometimes things come out of your mouth the wrong way. >> yeah, the vice-president made a bit of news there, saying it was the intelligence committee that told them, according to him, initially, that it was the video that led to the attack on our consulate, in benghazi. i mean, he came out explicitly and said that the intelligence community gave them that

information. he went on to talk about the situation there, saying we were not told they wanted more security in benghazi, which we will get to, i am sure with chris wallace, who has been doing fact checking, but there's directly contrary to what we heard from the state department officials themselves, yesterday. paul ryan, for the most part, maintaining his cool, not interrupting joe biden. but joe biden, sort of what we saw mitt romney do the first time around, always getting the last word, making sure that no point went unsubpoenad to, paul ryan looking maybe more respectful, but perhaps in the minds of some, perhaps more weak. we would -- we will find out. steve hayes and joe trippi. on the set, we were discussing whether -- joe biden was having an al gore moment. did he go too far with the smirking, such that the substance will be undermined? >> i think he had a very strong debate.

but was diminished, i thought was diminished by the smirking and he overdid t. i think, look, he surprised me on how aggressive and defensive on the economy, bringing up the 47%. i was very surprised, though, about how strong ryan was on foreign policy. it's going to be interesting how this plays out because i think... i think women were up for grabs here. i think that biden really scored points that the last thing we need is another ground war in the middle-east. there were different issues where i think he really pushed hard. but i don't know about the likeability of the smirking ando -- how he over did, i found it condescending and overdone. >> there was a moment, talking about the dimeanor, there was a moment at the very end, maybe when most voters weren't play paying attention, paul ryan started his closing statement and gave what i thought was a sincere thank to you martha raddatz, to the crowd and to joe biden. when he thanked joe biden, biden

was smirking. i thought that came across as very disrespectful and symbol symbolic of the way that joe biden handled the night. on the substance, i was struck by the same thing with respect to libbia. it seemed that vice-president was criticizing the intelligence community, in some ways, by not giving them as much information as we thought. he blamed all the false statements of the obama administration on the intelligence community and seemed to raise questions about the confidence of the intelligence community and in a discussion about iran, he said, we will know when they go to -- when they go to a break-out for the bomb. it seems to me, there is major tension between those two statements on the one hand, suggesting they are not competent enough to know what happened on the ground in libya but saying they will know for sure if iran decides to go for the bomb. >> on domestic policy, we heard joe biden do what his boss, barack obama, did not, hammer the 47% comoant that mitt romney

said and was talking about how mitt romney believes that 30% of the american people are takers -- that's my mom, that's my dad, he sadism the obama campaign has to be very happy with what biden did there. i mean, i was surprised that the president didn't do it in the last debate. i think biden made a lot of strong points, i just don't know where -- did women find him likeable. the other thing, i thought about it midway through, the obama campaign may not care. i mean, they may have sent him out there to really descrive -- drive through the points. nobody's going to vote for president for whether or not they like joe biden. i would have made him more likeable. but it may have just been about scoring points about pushing through, bringing up the 47% and really driving it. >> paul ryan had the last word saying i think the vice-president knows words don't always come out the right way on that's 47%. we are getting a preview on how

they may handle that. back to you in a empty. >> wonk one thing's clear, the vice-president had more energy than the president in his first debate. let's go down to "on the record with greta van susteren" in washington for what she thought. and she has what is coming up. >> i have brit hume here. in watching the show, what do you think that the independentss and undecideds saw. >> it depends on what they think of joe biden and his demeanor. if you read the transcript, you might conclude that the vice-president had a very strong debate, that high -- he had a lot to say and he was strongly critical of governor romney and his program and he held his own. but that's not all there is to it. we had the split screen, much as we did during the presidential debate. while paul ryan was talking, was smirking, laughing, miling, mugging by the vice-president.

my sense was that it was so compelling that people probably couldn't take their eyes off of t. tell come down to whether or not people thought that was attractive. i thought it was unattractive and rude. i have a feeling it will come across to a lot of people, it looked like a cranky old man to some extent, debating a polite young man. >> it's funny. i gave a speech and i told everybody eye happen to really like joe biden. i happen to really like paul ryan. i said to the group, these are the two nicest men you will see in washington. you disagree, but very nice. i thought that ryan was respectful. he said thanks joe, at the end. but the smiles, the sneers and the my friend stuff, i was surprised. it made vice-president joe biden -- someone who i typically like, i thought he was very unlikeable. i thought -- i was prized that i didn't like him. >> on a personal baitionz, viknown joe biden a very long timing. he is a very nice man. if you talk to him and you say

you needed his shirt, he would take his shirt off. that's the way he is. but his public discourse has been marked by a couple of things. he has in nervous mannerism, which is a smile. he flash its all the time, even sometimes when it's inappropriate. i think it's a nervous tick. tonight it was out there for all to see, time and time again, it was pleasure that and derisive, sneering, as you suggested. he said a couple of things. he said at one point, asked about the need for more security in benghazi. we were not told more security was nided. i don't think that's true. the other thing he said, the $716 billion that goes in the books as a medicare cut was applied to medicare. that's not true either. i don't know whether the fact checkers will get after him about that -- >> i think, that's where it gets in the weeds. it's easy for your mind to sort of get lost as you are listening to them in the weeds and the numbers of medicare and taxes. the likeability thing i think is so important.

and it's why i asked, what do the independents and the undecideds. the rest of the people saw him as a sneering -- rude. >> actually, i think what may have happened tonight, the belief on the left and among a lot of democrats was, that mitt romney had taken over the first debate, overwhelmed barack obama, who was more -- more reserved and dominated the whole affair. one sex is that perhaps, this is what vice-president biden was doing, to dominate. one could argue that he did that. mitt romney didn't seem to me to have been rude or overbearing or unpleasant or condescending in his behavior toward the moderator and toward the president. one senses that a lot of people will feel that that is exactly how joe biden seemed tonight. >> twitter is alive. we will be back at midnight for a special and by that time, i learn more about what the people at home are saying.

we'll take you live to paul ryan's hometown, japesville, wisconsin, and get the reaction from his brother and sister-in-law. plus karl rove and bat buchanan are right here. at the midnight show. stay tuned. bret and megyn will be back in just a minute.

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vice-presidential debate. let's go to chris wallace in washington. chris, your thoughts? fact checking? >> yeah. let me start with the thoughts, first, bret. i have to say, i think i have watched almost every presidential and vice-presidential debate since the first four kennedy/nixon debates in 1960. thinking back over the last few minutes, i don't believe i have ever seen a debate in which one participant was as openly disrespectful as the other as biden was to paul ryan tonight. that's what it was, the smirks, the smiles, the head shaking, the mugging. it was openly contemptious and disrespectful. also the words. in the course of the night, he dismissed various arguments as malarky, bunch of stuff, i don't know what these guys are talking about, loose talk and bluster. it was really quite an extraordinary -- i have to say, from my experience, unprecedented performance in a

vice-presidential debate by one of participant it's. >> chris, you know what -- let me interrupt you real quick. what was amazing was some of the topics were, when he was laughing and smirking, one of them, i noticed was the iran, when paul ryan was talking about iran. listen, tai may disagree about how long it takes iran to get a nuclear weapon or how much of a threat iran is, but clearly, iran is a threat, eventually. and the laughing in the smiling, in would think, perhaps, that would be misplaced at that point. it's interesting. there are a lot of people all over reacting to that. >> yeah, in fairness, i don't think he was laughing about the situation in iran. i think he was laughing, portraying that -- poor, dim, paul ryan didn't know what he was talking about and didn't understand the situation. on libya and tax, i thought that ryan had the clear edge. on entitlements and afghanistan, i thought biden scored.

i would also say one thing about ryan, i was told going in that ryan was going to make this a big debate about big issues and it was only in the last 10 or 15 minutes that he made this talk about a big choice. here's where obama's going to take you, here's where he has taken you already. but on a lot of the issues, he got too far into the policy weeds and wasn't big enough. let's do a little fact checking. the biggest issue seemed to be what the vice-president had to say about libbia. let's take a clip from the debate. >> the intelligence community told us that, as they learned more facts about exactly what happened, they changed their assessment. that's why there is also an investigation headed by tom pickerring, a leading diplomat from the reagan years, who is doing an investigation to whether or not there were any lapse it's. >> martha: they wantedded more security there. >> we weren't told they wanted more security there. we did not upon know they wanted

more security. >> now, there are two issues there. the first one is that he claims, biden claims it was the intelligence community that told them it was a spontaneous protest. there are two sides to this story. the state department says that it never concluded that the consulate attack in libya stemmed from protests over an american-made video. and in fact, they invoke aid certain act of terror warnings at the very beginning, so they could do that. on the other hand, i have to say that the director of national intelligence, james clapper, originally said -- i have to quote here, in the immediate aftermath, there was information that led us to assess that the attack began spontaneously, following protests earlier that day at our embassy. we provided that initial assessment to the executive branch officials. so biden has backup there. on the question of we were not told, maybe biden wasn't told, maybe obama wasn't told, but in

a hearing yesterday, it was made clear repeatedly that the state department was asked repeatedly more more forces on the ground. and one security official who had withdrawn said i was more frustrated with the state department that i came to feel i was dealing with the taliban inside the state department. no question that whether biden knew or not, the top state department officials knew that officials on the ground felt there was a security breach and a very dangerous situation, for our diplomats in libiasm. >> yeah. right, chris. you are exactly right. we reported that intelligence officials privately other than saying they knew within 24 hours about the terrorist attack, despite what we heard from state this week. chris wallace, thank you. megyn jim mussina is saying, asked about joe biden's smiling and laughing, he is a happy, warrior for the middle class. and asked if that's appropriate,

he said, he's a happy warrior. repeated a couple of times. >> the spinners are here in full force behind me. they are spinning here, more than a whirlpool store. i'll leave it to greg gutfeld. >> that was a good effort. >> coming up, a man who requires no imitation, charles krauthammer. he will be here live with his take on the evening, right after this break, don't go away. you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand, grow stronger and get back to work.

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>> welcome back to center college in danville, kentucky let's go to charles krauthammer in washington. charles? your thoughts. >> i think the debate happened

at several levels. if you read the transcripts i think it's dead even. if you heard it on radio, biden won. if you watch on television, he lost. in the transcript if you look at the raw argument i think it was even, each side had points to make and made them. i think not one side was stronger than another. if you heard it on the radio, what you heard is that biden being aggressive, forceful. sort of on the attack. and he pushed the argument his way. he did a lot of interrupting as well, ryan reacted with i thought excessive deferenci allowing himself to be cutoff and ending with a point you might understand which he talked about the catholic bishop, biden said he's not going to be compelled to do anything under obama care,

ryan said why is that they're suing the administration? that is almost on a side that was lost and then, it was over by the next question. but if you put them together, and you end up with television where you saw the demeanor the vice president had in regards to ryan, i think that undid the advantage in rhetoric that he had in carrying the debate. it was so disrespectful. i agree with chris wallace. it was sort of almost unprecedented and kond sending. i think in the end, if television, you lose. >> charles, do you think that this debate tonight moved the needle at all? >> i don't. the reason is that whether you decide that vice president won or lost, people don't end up in the booth voting for number two. so if you like one, he was

likeable. the other wasn't. i don't think there was an affect on the vote. the question is will it affect the debate that's are coming up? that is the real heavy weight stuff between obama and romney. and i think that the objective, perhaps one advantage is that biden lay down is that in the actual arguments he made the point that had been left out of the first debate. what he was trying to do is set the premises for the upcoming debate by filling in the blanks and by answering the charges romney made in obama had left unanswered. the 47%. repeating $5 trillion of debt. true, or untrue, it was reenforcing the democratic argument which had been completely undermined in the first debate. and as a result, obama has been sinking in the polls. so i think that he might have staunched the bleeding to some

extent on the substance romney attacked obama on. and now, it's all up to the heavy weights in the last two rountdz of the fight. >> charles krauthammer, thank you. >> pleasure. >> fox news teamed up with the folks at twitter to find out what you had to say about tonight's debate. twitter keeping tabs on when the discussion on stage triggered a big discussion online. some of the hottest topics trending tonight on the left total volume of tweets throughout the debate, left side of the screen more than 3.5 million tweets, three topics jumped. foreign policy, 26%, second, economy, 21%, third, taxes, at 17%. for perspective, last week's presidential debate ranked in at a total of 0.3 million tweets. a lot of people using twitter tonight. and again, it's at bret br